1. Technical Field
The current application relates to constructing three-dimensional representations of building structures such as roofs.
2. Background Information
Constructing three-dimensional (3D) building structures such as roofs is useful and has many applications. However, conventional approaches have limitations in constructing complex roofs. Some solutions simplify the problem by modeling only roof planes of interest, for example by drawing an outline of a single roof face and assigning a pitch and an azimuth to it. Users may also manually create three-dimensional models in CAD software. In some cases, users may manually define an outline of a roof and use tools that convert a straight skeleton of the outline to 3D representations. All of these solutions have in common that they cannot model complex roof structures because they do not support for roof structures where perimeter edges are at different heights or roof structures that contain pitch changes. Additionally, these systems are usually general-purpose CAD tools that are complicated to use and thus require a lot of effort and a high degree of skill. This limits their use for applications that require a fast turn-around time and its use by unsophisticated users.